Outside The Crayon Box
by nicoleherondale
Summary: [au, twoshot, wessa] Tessa didn't know what had her falling in love with her best friend, but it was probably because of the flower, the first dance, the second dance and the kiss that follows.
1. one

**a/n:** um hello so this is a TID one/twoshot for everyone who is pissed at me for falling off the face of the TID fanfic archive for two months. yeah well when i sit down and try to write the inspiration just leaves me. I'M TRYING HARD

thank you for your patience. i am actually slowly working my way through chapter six, and the chapter will be posted soon. but for now let's sit back and enjoy this, yeah?

**disclaimer: **lol cassie clare owns TID

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_part I_

_kindergarten_

Tessa is confused about her best friend.

Her name is Tatiana.

What she likes about her is her sandy brown hair, which is almost the same color as her hair. She also likes her green eyes, so bright and lively in comparison to her stormy, dull grey eyes.

She likes how they crinkle at the edges when she smiles. She doesn't have them herself, but she enjoys looking at Tatiana's.

She also offers her candies during snack time and lets her try on the one particular sparkly purple skirt that is always hung inside the toy wardrobe during playtime.

What she doesn't like about her is that she always tells her off— "Oh, Tessie, you are stupid!" "Oh, Tessie, you cannot do it like that!" "Oh, Tessie, will you _ever_ be like me? Mommy says you wouldn't."

And she is always bossy. She never lets her talk to somebody else, like Sophie or Jessie or Cecy.

"Tessie!" Came Tatiana's eager voice as she grabs Tessa's arm rather forcefully. _"Tessie!"_

"What?"

"Tessie! I have a boyfriend!" She starts to spin in circles, her pigtails bouncing, the grin on her face emitting jubilance.

A boyfriend. Tessa's heard of that word before, something that her brother Nate had discussed with Aunt Harriet over the dinner table, but she's still not exactly sure what it means.

"Boyfriend?" A look of confusion replaces the curiosity.

Tatiana rolls her pretty green eyes. "A boyfriend, stupid. Like a boy who you want to marry when you grow up."

Tessa cocks her head to the right and lets out an unconvincing _ohhh. _Tatiana ignores this, spins Tessa around and points to a boy with midnight hair.

"Will?" Tessa says, still unsure why the annoying but cute blue-eyed boy would suddenly be her best friend's boyfriend.

Tatiana grins and nods her head. "My mom's invited his mom for tea, and she's brought him along. We played Barbie together, and I think he likes me."

"Will likes playing barbie?"

Tatiana doesn't look so sure about this. "Well, he was there with me… He watched me."

"He watched you play?"

"Yes."

"So he is your boyfriend?"

"Yes." Tatiana starts to sound impatient.

She seems to notice the look of the unconvinced on Tessa's face, so she gives a little frown. "Watch me." Then she flounces over to Will, who is playing lego with Jem Carstairs, her floral skirt fluttering, and gives him a tap on the shoulder.

Tessa rarely sees Will Herondale smile. In fact, she is sure that she has never seen him smile at all. His best friend, Jem's head turns just as Will's head does, and a scowl sets on his face.

"What?"

For a second, Tatiana looks uneasy, but the expression is immediately wiped away. "Will! Are you coming to my house later for barbie and tea? I mean, I'm your girlfriend, right?"

Tessa wonders how a boy of five, perhaps six could give such an intimidating glare. But it is true. The look on his face could probably let a grown adult to back slowly away from him, as if he was a lion about to pounce on prey.

She also wonders why he looks so angry. It's not like Tatiana did anything that bad…

"No." Will finally says shortly, and turns back to playing with lego bricks. Tessa cannot seem to explain the stab of satisfaction that shoots through her body as Tatiana's mouth drops open.

Tatiana is angry as she walks home. "He likes me! He does, Tessie, you'll see!"

Tessa is about to respond when hands appear from behind and pushes Tatiana face-first onto the green grass. Immediately her flower barrette slides off of her hair and onto the grass.

"_No, I don't."_

Will is standing behind Tatiana. "I don't like you. Mom just made me go watch you play Barbie. You didn't think that did you?"

"Oh," Tessa replied. "That explains why you dislike her."

Tatiana sits up, her face stained with tears, dirt with grass. Will giggles, and so does Tessa— she knows she is being mean, but she can't help it.

"_I hate you!" _With another shriek, Tatiana takes off running down the field, wiping her face as she runs.

"I think that goes for both of us," Will says as he watches Tatiana's brown hair disappear into a bush.

Tessa nodded. "The truth is, I don't like her that much, although she's my best friend. She's very annoying."

Will looks surprised. "Well, Jem is my best friend, and I really like him."

She shrugs. "I guess I picked the wrong best friend."

He nods in agreement. "Yep."

Tessa gives a slight smile. Will then does something she doesn't expect— he picks up Tatiana's flower barrette off from the grass and hands it to her.

"Huh?" She stares at uncomprehendingly at the flower in his outstretched hand.

"A flower. For you."

_part II_

_elementary school_

Tessa makes a face at Tatiana and her friends. They're all clustered together at one lunch table, giggling and batting their eyelashes at the boys. Tessa thinks it's gross.

Will Herondale doesn't have much of a reaction— he simply looks bored.

She wonders if he still remembers her from that day Tatiana had fell onto the ground. She wonders if he still remembers the flower he had given her, but _not really given her._ He'd acted like she never existed for the past few years.

Tessa knows why Tatiana is making those faces at Will and his friends. There is a little "Christmas Performance" coming up, and apparently they would have to be paired up, boy-girl and slow dance around the stage.

It is a nuisance how most of the children aren't capable of waltzing and at least has to be instructed once by a teacher.

Tessa swallows at the thought of being paired up with someone she doesn't know. Maybe she will be paired up with her brother?

She goes back to eating her sandwich.

"I hope I'm gonna be paired up with Gideon!" Sophie, her best friend practically shouts in her ear, and Tessa's hand reaches up to cover it. She grimaces.

"Gideon Lightwood? Tatiana's brother?"

"Yeah!" Sophie looks ecstatic, but Tessa wants to tell her what she thinks.

"Dream on, Soph."

The teacher, Ms. Branwell gives them a while to pick their partners. If not, she would arrange them herself.

She watches the children wander around, swinging her legs to and fro while she is sitting on her desk.

Tessa swallows and retreats to a corner of the classroom, not daring to make eye contact with any boy. For some reason, her heart sinks when Tatiana approaches Will and asks him if he could dance with her.

It lifts up again as he says no.

Tatiana's face falls, and for a split second Tessa feels sorry for her. She is starting to get desperate, as most of the boys in the room are already standing with a girl. She doesn't want to be paired up with Gabriel Lightwood.

Will's eyes turn away from Tatiana and searches the room, as if he is looking for someone in particular. When the pair of eyes reach Tessa, he smiles slightly and makes his way towards her.

"Can we pair up?"

Tessa's mouth drops open slowly. The most popular, cutest and most wanted boy is standing in front of her, asking her if he could pair up with her for the Christmas Dance after saying no to the other girls. After he had ignored her for four years. Why her? Why not perfect, popular Tatiana Lightwood? Why not pretty, blonde Jessamine Lovelace?

"M—Me?"

"Yes, you." Will says, rolling his eyes. "Tessa."

"Why me? You— you don't even know me," Tessa stutters.

He smiles. "I do. Remember that time in kindergarten? I gave you that flower. You still have it, right?"

Slowly, Tessa smiles. "Yes."

So he does remember.

"Stop stepping on my foot!" Tessa protests as they work their way through the dance moves. "It hurts."

"Sorry. I'm bad at dancing."

Tessa laughs. "So am I. I have no idea how." She throws an envious over-the-shoulder look at Jessamine Lovelace, who is twirling gracefully around like a gazelle.

"What do you prefer, other than dancing then?" Will inquires.

"I prefer reading," Tessa says, thinking about the piles and piles of books on her bookshelves, everything she had been collecting since she was in preschool.

A smile appears on his face. "Really? Me too! I love books. They're awesome! I've seen this quote online— _a reader lives a thousand times before they die."_

"That is so true!" She beams. "That's gonna be my new favorite quote!"

When Tessa gets home, she searches up all Will's book recommendations, smiles, and marks them down on a sticky note.

At the night of the Christmas Performance, the spotlight shines on Will and Tessa as they waltz around the stage, occasionally stepping on each other's feet and secretly laughing.

Tessa is happy, and her heart leaps as she gets lost in Will's dark blue eyes. They are the color of the sky just on the edge of night.

They are fascinating.

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**a/n: **i hope you liked it. this will probably not be a oneshot and might be continued, just tell me what you think.

nicole out -POOF-


	2. two

**A/N: **Hi everyone! I'm back after like, 2 weeks, and I have to apologize for that since I was planning to update this earlier but I got kinda carried away.

If youre wondering when the next update for reach for the stars will be it'll probably be next wednesday or thursday or something. i've got everything plotted out but i just have no idea how to put it down o-o

anyway this is the second/last chapter of this story, enjoy :)x

* * *

_part III_

_middle school [or summer?]_

"I'm gonna throw this onto Sophie." Tessa says mischievously as her best friend helps her fill the pail with water from the hose. When it is full, Tessa takes a few steps towards Sophie's direction before whipping around and dumping the water onto Will's head.

"Tessa, _you little_—" Tessa tries to dodge but it is too late— the cold water hits her already-wet shirt and within seconds she has a mouthful of water.

She runs to smack the laughing Will. Her bucket is still over his head and his dark hair sticks to his forehead like glue. Water runs freely down from the bucket and onto his eyelashes. With a shake of his head, droplets of water fly off his hair, spattering onto Tessa. It didn't make much difference, anyway, since she was drenched in head to toe with water.

"Will Herondale!" She shouts and runs toward him, but in the end the four friends— Will, Tessa, Jem and Sophie are laughing and dancing around the lawn sprinkler on a hot summer day, having the time of their lives.

She knows that Will is thankful that she has dragged him away from his gaming console and out of his room and to the beach even though it is eighty-five degrees celsius. The view from the beach, is as usual, breathtaking.

Tessa gives a small smile as they both stare at the sea, hand in hand, the wind ruffling their hair. His eyes are the exact color of the cerulean ocean.

"What do you see?" Will asks her after making a comment about how his skin was going to get seriously tanned. She doesn't turn to look at him; she keeps staring at the blue waves and the dots of people scattered across the wide stretch of water.

A neon orange beach ball gets tossed into the air and breaks onto the surface with a satisfying splash.

She replies after a while, smiling wistfully. "I see a friendship that will last for a lifetime."

-o-

Tessa loves her life. She never knew that one day, in the middle of seventh grade, her life would crumble down.

"I've lost my job." Richard Gray says, panting, in the middle of the dining room.

All three mouths drop open.

"_How?!"_

"Why?"

Richard doesn't give anybody an audible explanation. Instead, he pushes past Tessa's mother, warding Tessa and Nate away and locks himself into his bedroom.

Her family is forced to move out of their house and squeeze into a small apartment the size of a fist, a long way away from their old house, Tessa and Nate's school and her best friend's mansion.

Instead of focusing on getting his job back, Richard Gray then purchases bottles and bottles of alcohol and has too much to drink.

Tessa cowers in fear in her bedroom, her brother by her side as their father yells at their mother and smashes lamps and jugs and things around their living room. She can hear the _smash _of porcelain and glass shattering.

Her only escape is school.

Every day the school bus picks her up and brings her to her middle school, and the one thing that cheers her up is the sight of Will, waiting amongst the flow of students for Tessa.

It makes her feel… _loved. _

Maybe not loved, but at least she has someone.

Every day Tessa confides into her group of friends, Will, Jem, and Sophie about the woes with her father, and they all end up cheering her up, although day after day Richard's condition gets worse.

_part IV_

_high school_

Something in Elizabeth Gray's mind snaps, and her hand firmly clasps around Richard's wrist and sweeps the bottles of pills down from the table.

His eyes, glinting and dangerous, fall on his wife.

"Stop." She says firmly without a tremor in her voice. So Richard pulls out a gun from his back and puts a bullet straight through her forehead.

Tessa goes motionless for a while, frozen in spot, and she has this fear that she is going to be stuck in this position, paralysed forever.

But Tessa screams, her gray eyes wide and filled with fear. Her father seems to realise what he has done, flings open the window and before she can stop him, he positions himself onto the windowsill and leaps out of it.

Tessa crouches beside her mother and sobs; she flings out her cell phone and dials 911.

Then she dials Nate's number.

The police arrive almost immediately, and they take their parents away. Tessa clutches her brother, crying in his chest. He tries to comfort her while stroking her hair but he is crying too.

When they get to the police station, Tessa collapses.

Somebody, not Nate, takes her in their arms and rocks her back and forth, and even in the midst of all this stuff a sense of security washes over Tessa.

-o-

Will places the card on Tessa's bedside table inside the hospital room. Jem and Sophie had left only moments ago, and he decides to stay a little bit longer until a nurse forces him to leave.

"Hey, Tess." He says softly, watching her sleep, and slowly places a kiss onto her forehead.

After Tessa gets better, Edmund Herondale asks them if they want to live in their house. After all, it is too big for four people and a maid.

Tessa says no at first as they would both be a burden for the Herondale family, but slowly Edmund and Will come around and finally Tessa and Nate are convinced to move into the house.

The school is having their annual Prom, and Tessa decides that she cannot go. She is afraid of the world. She is afraid of what is going to happen next and how she is going to get through it.

After all, right now she is falling into a seemingly endless abyss and next to nobody is there to pull her out.

Every night she has nightmares about both her parents, but Will always appears at her side and holds her until she falls asleep again. And at that there is another uninvited, probably unwanted feeling in the pit of her stomach, the same feeling she had felt all those years ago, when she had danced with him during fourth grade's Christmas dance, when she had looked into his eyes.

Despite all her efforts, she isn't able to push it away. After all, if she kept it, it would just be another— _bigger_ burden.

-o-

"You need to make it up to me," Will says, brushing the waves of black hair away from his eyes, a gesture Tessa is very used to.

"Make what up?"

"You missed the dance," He mutters. "I didn't enjoy letting Jem and Sophie drag me around the table. I didn't even want to be there, since you weren't."

Tessa's face turns warm. "What'd they force you to drink? Punch?"

He snorts. _"Punch. _Tessa, don't even try. You are going to be dancing with me."

She rolled her eyes. "Will, it's twelve a.m."

"No excuses, no exceptions. Oh, and Tessa?"

"Yes?" Tessa can't resist but smile at his determination, and decides to give in.

"That flower barrette. Do you still have it?"

Tessa laughs at the memory. "It was once Tatiana's."

"I don't care. Just wear it."

They dance around his living room to a slow song, with the barrette in Tessa's hair. His dancing skills seem to have improved over the course of eight years but there is the occasional toe-step.

Her heart leaps again, like how it has that many years ago under the spotlight, but this time they aren't being spectated by a huge audience. It's just them. Alone.

His head slowly dips down towards hers.

_Friends my ass._

Soon she has suddenly decided to fist her hands into Will's midnight hair and kiss him like nothing is more important. She shocks both of them, but he responds quickly by pressing his lips against hers with equal measure.

Her arms wrap tighter around his neck, and he says "I love you" in between kisses.

After that, nothing really worries Tessa anymore.

.

.

.

_fin._

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**A/N: **hope you liked it(: please review, i'll probably post more of these up soon or something. about wild wishes, i dont think a chapter is gonna be posted soon. after all i was halfway through the chapter when my mind went blank again

please review, love you guys, bye.


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